Lactose carrier protein of Escherichia coli. Reconstitution of galactoside binding and countertransport

Studies of translocation catalysis

There is a symbiotic relationship between the evolution of fundamental theory and the winning of experimentally-based knowledge. The impact of the General Chemiosmotic Theory on our understanding of the nature of membrane transport processes is described and discussed. The history of experimental studies on transport catalysed by ionophore antibiotics and the membrane proteins of mitochondria and bacteria are used to illustrate the evolution of knowledge and theory. Recent experimental approaches to understanding the lactose-H+ symport protein of Escherichia coli and other sugar porters are described to show that the lack of experimental knowledge of the three-dimensional structures of the proteins currently limits the development of theories about their molecular mechanism of translocation catalysis.

Current concepts in membrane protein reconstitution

The reconstitution of integral proteins into artificial lipid vesicles is largely prompted by the complexity of most biological membranes and the inherent difficulty of studying individual components in situ. Ideally, therefore, the reconstituted system should consist of a single protein in a lipid matrix which mimics the native membrane in all but its diversity. While such an approach allows individual components of a complex system to be studied in isolation it should also be sufficiently versatile to permit the generation of increasingly sophisticated multicomponent models. From the considerable number of reconstitution techniques which have been developed I have tried in this review to identify those characteristics of a particular system which maximise both the information it can provide and its versatility.

Quantitative immunoprecipitation of the lactose transporter from Escherichia coli confirms stoichiometry of substrate binding

A procedure is presented for the immunoprecipitation of the E. coli lactose transporter which may be applicable to other membrane protein antigens. Antibodies to its chemically synthesized C-terminal decapeptide specifically precipitate 6.0 +/- 0.2% of the radioactivity from solubilized [14C]amino-acid-labeled total cell envelopes of the transporter-overproducing strain T206 corresponding to 1.0 +/- 0.1 nmol transporter/mg total membrane protein. Comparison with galactoside binding yields a stoichiometry of 1.1 +/- 0.2 mol galactoside bound/mol transporter.

Beta-D-galactoside transport in Escherichia coli. Solubilization in organic solvent and reconstitution of binding

The beta-D-galactoside transport protein (y-gene product) of Escherichia coli, strain T 206, was solubilized in 85-95% yield using the organic solvents hexamethylphosphoric triamide at pH 7.5 or butan-1-ol at pH 4.2. The transport protein obtained with the former solvent could be incorporated into a defined lipid/protein aggregate of density 1.12 g/ml, but no beta-D-galactoside binding was restored. Diacylglycerol kinase regained activity in the same lipid/protein aggregates. In control experiments, liposomes formed from hexamethylphosphoric triamide were found to be active in the valinomycin-mediated uptake of Rb+ ions. beta-D-Galactoside binding (3.6-5.7 nmol/mg protein) as well as diacylglycerol kinase activity [7 nmol min-1 (mg protein)-1] was reconstituted into proteoliposomes from butan-1-ol solution by adaptation of a published procedure [Wright, J. K. et al. (1982) Eur. J. Biochem. 124, 545-552]. A microparticulate nature of the butan-1-ol-solubilized transport protein could be excluded by gel permeation chromatography on a newly synthesized matrix, hydroxypropyl-Sephacryl S-300.

Sidedness of native membrane vesicles of Escherichia coli and orientation of the reconstituted lactose: H+ carrier

The orientation of the lactose:H+ carrier of Escherichia coli in various preparations of native and reconstituted vesicles is determined with two impermeant, macromolecular probes: antibodies directed against the C-terminal decapeptide of the carrier and carboxypeptidase A (EC 3.4.17.1). Two methods are employed. Method I is based upon the digestion of all accessible and, therefore, presumably external, C termini of the carrier with carboxypeptidase A and detection of the remaining, internal C termini with 125I-labelled anti-(C-terminus) antibody after electrophoresis of the carrier in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate and transfer to nitrocellulose filters. Method II is based upon the binding of 125I-labelled anti-(C-terminus) antibody to the external C termini of the carrier in vesicles and the subsequent isolation of bound antibody by centrifugation. The labelled antibodies are calibrated using a preparation of inside-out vesicles prepared by high-pressure lysis of strain T206. The carrier content is determined by substrate binding. Because the C terminus of the carrier is known to reside on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane, these methods can also be used to determine the sidedness of various preparations of membrane vesicles. Spheroplasts are confirmed to contain carrier molecules of a single orientation, corresponding to that in right-side-out vesicles. In contrast, in purified cytoplasmic membrane vesicles and in crude membrane preparations obtained by sonication or by high-pressure lysis, 96% of the C termini are accessible to carboxypeptidase A, even after repeated sonication. This implies that nearly all carrier molecules in these preparations possess an orientation opposite to that in the cell or in right-side-out vesicles. In proteoliposomes containing carrier reconstituted or purified and reconstituted by two different methods, only 48% of the carrier molecules are oriented in the same way as in the cell. Subjecting such proteoliposomes to cycles of freezing and thawing or to sonication results in a reshuffling of carrier molecules between the inside-out and right-side-out populations while maintaining 41% in the right-side-out orientation. Digestion of the C terminus of the carrier with carboxypeptidase A does not alter either galactoside binding or countertransport. Thus carrier molecules of the inside-out orientation cannot be selectively inactivated. Additionally, an antiserum directed against the purified carrier is demonstrated to contain nearly exclusively anti-(C-terminus) antibodies, which can, in principle, be used in Method I.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Purified reconstituted lac carrier protein from Escherichia coli is fully functional

Proteoliposomes reconstituted with lac carrier protein purified from the plasma membrane of Escherichia coli catalyze each of the translocation reactions typical of the beta-galactoside transport system (i.e., active transport, counterflow, facilitated influx and efflux) with turnover numbers and apparent Km values comparable to those observed in right-side-out membrane vesicles. Furthermore, detailed kinetic studies show that the reconstituted system exhibits properties analogous to those observed in membrane vesicles. Imposition of a membrane potential (delta psi, interior negative) causes a marked decrease in apparent Km (by a factor of 7 to 10) with a smaller increase in Vmax (approximately equal to 3-fold). At submaximal values of delta psi, the reconstituted carrier exhibits biphasic kinetics, with one component manifesting the kinetic parameters of active transport and the other exhibiting the characteristics of facilitated diffusion. Finally, at low lactose concentrations, the initial velocity of influx varies linearly with the square of the proton electro-chemical gradient. The results provide quantitative support for the contention that a single polypeptide species, the product of the lac y gene, is responsible for each of the transport reactions typical of the beta-galactoside transport system.

Purification of the lactose:H+ carrier of Escherichia coli and characterization of galactoside binding and transport

The lactose carrier, a galactoside:H+ symporter in Escherichia coli, has been purified from cytoplasmic membranes by pre-extraction of the membranes with 5-sulfosalicylate, solubilization in dodecyl-O-beta-D-maltoside, Ecteola-column chromatography, and removal of residual impurities by anti-impurity antibodies. Subsequently, the purified carrier was reincorporated into E. coli phospholipid vesicles. Purification was monitored by tracer N-[3H]ethylmaleimide-labeled carrier and by binding of the substrate p-nitrophenyl-alpha-D-galactopyranoside. All purified carrier molecules were active in substrate binding and the purified protein was at least 95% pure by several criteria. Substrate binding to the purified carrier in detergent micelles and in reconstituted proteoliposomes yielded a stoichiometry close to one molecule substrate bound per polypeptide chain. Large unilamellar proteoliposomes (1-5-micron diameter) were prepared from initially small reconstituted vesicles by freeze-thaw cycles and low-speed centrifugation. These proteoliposomes catalyzed facilitated diffusion and active transport in response to artificially imposed electrochemical proton gradients (delta mu H+) or one of its components (delta psi or delta pH). Comparison of the steady-state level of galactoside accumulation and the nominal value of the driving gradients yielded cotransport stoichiometries up to 0.7 proton/galactoside, suggesting that the carrier protein is the only component required for active galactoside transport. The half-saturation constants for active uptake of lactose (KT = 200 microM) or beta-D-galactosyl-1-thio-beta-D-galactoside (KT = 50-80 microM) by the purified carrier were found to be similar to be similar to those measured in cells or cytoplasmic membrane vesicles. The maximum rate for active transport expressed as a turnover number was similar in proteoliposomes and cytoplasmic membrane vesicles (kcat = 3-4 s-1 for lactose) but considerably smaller than in cells (kcat = 40-60 s-1). Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.

lacZ--Y+ fusions in Escherichia coli. DNA sequencing reveals the eight N-terminal residues of lac permease as non-essential

The nucleotide sequence of three lacZ- -Y+ fusions found among spontaneous lacY+ revertants of the lacY- mutant MAB16 in Escherichia coli is reported. MAB16 is a frameshift mutation in codon 6 of the lacY gene. DNA sequence analysis of the fusions shows the first eight N-terminal codons of the lacY gene can be replaced by 3, 39 or 804/805 N-terminal codons of the lacZ gene without impairing lac permease activity qualitatively.

Solubilization of ligand-stabilized vasopressin receptors from plasma membranes of bovine kidney and rat liver

The solubilization of vasopressin receptors from plasma membranes of bovine kidney and rat liver by different detergents was investigated. A prerequisite for the extraction of vasopressin receptors retaining binding affinity for their ligand was the stabilization of the receptors by the prior formation of the membrane-bound hormone-receptor complexes. The vasopressin-receptor complexes from both kidney and liver membranes were solubilized in a high yield with dodecyl-beta-D-maltoside and 3-laurylamido-N,N'-dimethylpropylaminoxide. Several other nonionic detergents including octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside effectively extracted the hepatic vasopressin receptor. For the hormone-receptor complex solubilized from bovine kidney with dodecyl-beta-D-maltoside, a Stokes' radius of 5.8 nm was determined.

Does the lactose carrier of Escherichia coli function as a monomer?

The purified lactose carrier of Escherichia coli (product of the lac Y gene) is shown to be a monomer in detergent micelles of dodecyl-O-beta-D-maltoside. The negative-dominant phenotype of mutant carriers (lacY-d mutants) could not be verified by measurements of the rate of galactoside transport in lacY+/Y-d diploid strains. It is proposed that the membrane-embedded carrier functions as a monomer in galactoside-H+ symport.

Reconstitution of active transport in proteoliposomes containing cytochrome o oxidase and lac carrier protein purified from Escherichia coli

Most active transport across the bacterial cell membrane is driven by a proton electrochemical gradient (delta-muH+, interior negative and alkaline) generated via electron transfer through a membrane-bound respiratory chain. This phenomenon is now reproduced in vitro with proteoliposomes containing only two proteins purified from the membrane of Escherichia coli. An o-type cytochrome oxidase was extracted from membranes of a cytochrome d terminal oxidase mutant with octyl beta-D-glucopyranoside after sequential treatment with urea and cholate and was purified to homogeneity by ion-exchange chromatography. The purified oxidase contains four polypeptides (MrS 66,000, 35,000, 22,000, and 17,000), two b-type cytochromes (b558 and b563), and 16-17 nmol of heme b per mg of protein, and it catalyzes the oxidation of ubiquinol and other electron donors with specific activities 20- to 30-fold higher than crude membranes. The lac carrier protein was purified as described. Proteoliposomes were formed in the presence of the oxidase and lac carrier protein by detergent dilution, followed by freeze-thaw/sonication. The system generates a delta-muH+ (interior negative and alkaline) with ubiquinol as electron donor and the magnitude of delta-muH+ is dependent on the concentration of cytochrome o in the proteoliposomes. Furthermore, the proteoliposomes transport lactose against a concentration gradient to an extent that is commensurate with the magnitude of delta-muH+ generated. The results provide powerful additional support for the "chemiosmotic hypothesis" and demonstrate that purified lac carrier protein retains the ability to function in a physiological manner.

Comparison of lactose uptake in resting and energized Escherichia coli cells: high rates of respiration inactivate the lac carrier

The transport of lactose by Escherichia coli cells was radically different in the absence and in the presence of an exogenous energy source: in the former case, the time course of lactose accumulation was monotonous; in the latter case, lactose accumulation reached a maximum and then decreased to a final steady-state level lower than that observed in the absence of an energy source. We show that this "overshoot" is the result of a decrease in the influx rate and of an increase in the rate constant of efflux as lactose accumulates. These phenomena were irreversible. The extent of the overshoot was dependent upon the experimental conditions: it was maximal at alkaline pH, for low external potassium concentrations, and for relatively high external lactose concentrations (around or above the KT of uptake). The addition of an energy source to resting E. coli cells resulted in an increase in both the electrochemical gradient of protons and in the rate of respiration. We demonstrate that the overshoot is the result of the latter and unrelated to the former. We observed an irreversible decrease in the membrane potential as lactose accumulated in the presence of an exogenous energy source. We discuss the whole of our data in terms of an irreversible inactivation of the lactose carrier as a result of a possible interaction with the respiratory chain.